Garlic is one of Mother Nature's most versatile herbs, with qualities both culinary and medicinal. It's one of the easiest plants you can grow, and it also happens to be one of the few things you should plant right now — in the fall. (Unless you live in Wasilla, Alaska, in which case it's probably too late for you this season — but feel free to bookmark this article for next year!)

GROWING GARLIC
For those of you with still-unfrozen ground, here are a few resources to help you get started:

• Plant Now for Great Garlic 
• Plant Garlic this Fall 
• Gourmet Garlic from the Ground Up 
• Growing Garlic Scapes 
• Garlic: A Plant to Love 
• Harvest Time and Planting Time 
• Garlic Seed Sources 
• A Few of My Favorite Garlics 

GARLIC FOR HEALTH
Garlic is one of nature's greatest nutritional powerhouses. Learn more about the long list of battles it fights so well:

• Great-tasting Garlic is Good for Your Heart 
• Garlic and Your Health 
• Garlic: Nature's Gift for Life 

GARLIC IN THE KITCHEN
And now for some super garlic recipes to put those beautiful bulbs to work:

• Garlic Scapes 
• More on Scapes 
• Garlicky Bruschetta
• Extra-creamy Roasted Garlic Guacamole 
• How to Roast Garlic
• Easy Refrigerator Pickled Garlic
• Make Your Own Garlic Powder 
• Great Garlic Recipes 
• Garlic Makes It Good 

Love garlic/Don't cook? Check out these Specialty Garlic Restaurants.

'Tis the season for harvesting leaves, the most abundant free source of organic matter available to most gardeners. Microorganisms in soil and compost transform leaves into bits of organic matter, which helps the soil retain nutrients and moisture.  By themselves, leaves contain small amounts of 16 plant nutrients.

You can stockpile leaves in a bin or pen to use later as compost or mulch, but you don't have to wait until leaves decompose to put them to work. With some shredding assistance from your lawn mower, you can give your leaves useful jobs right now.

1. Turn lawn into garden. Prepare sections of lawn you want to develop into garden beds by smothering them with leaves. First scalp the grass by mowing as close to the surface as possible. Then cover the space with several thicknesses of newspaper or cardboard, and cover the base layer with two inches (or more) or compost or manure. Top with 3 to 4 inches of shredded leaves. 

2. Winterize hardy vegetables. Use shredded leaves to limit winter injury to kale, leeks, carrots and other hardy vegetables. Surround the planting with a low fence or burlap enclosure and fill it with up to 12 inches of shredded leaves. Mulch garlic and perennial onions with up to 6 inches of shredded leaves mixed with the season's last grass clippings.

3. Bury them in a trench. Improve the drainage and organic matter content in garden beds by digging narrow trenches, filling them with shredded leaves, and then covering them up. By late spring, the leaves will be sufficiently decomposed to mix into the soil, or you can plant right into the enriched trenches.

4. Mulch-mow them into your grass. Research done at Michigan State University reveals that when rather thick layers of leaves (to 12 inches) are shredded with a mower and allowed to rot where they fall, the grass greens up faster in spring and grows better the following summer. Just don't expect the leaves to disappear from view until the grass starts growing next year.

5. Mulch your trees. Stockpile shredded leaves until early winter, and then tuck in trees, shrubs, and perennial beds with 3 to 4 inches of shredded leaf mulch. A thick leaf mulch helps moderate soil temperatures in winter, reducing cold-related injuries to shallow roots. Beneficial soil-dwelling fungi are also abundant beneath shredded leaf mulch – one reason why Colorado State University lists mulching among its Ten Commandments of Planting Trees.

There is one precaution: Be careful with black walnut leaves, which can cause reduced growth in many plants, including tomatoes. According to Iowa State University, the juglone in black walnut leaves is usually neutralized by 4 to 6 months of composting.

Do you have other leaf-handling methods that work great at your place? Be sure to share them in the Comments section below.

Green Fortune baby pak choi

Along with traditional fall crops like mustard, turnips and collards, fall is a great time to try arugula, Chinese cabbage, and other Asian greens that have caught your eye. Leafy greens become more crisp and sweet as nights become cooler and longer. Sow the seeds where you want them to grow, and shade the seeded bed for a few days to keep it moist. See 13 Ways to Beat the Heat for a roundup of easy ways to help beds keep their cool through the dog days of August.

To determine your optimum dates for sowing fall crops, add three weeks to the days to maturity ratings listed below or shown on your seed packs to compensate for days that are getting shorter. Then count back from your average first fall frost date to find the date you should sow each crop. (To find your average first fall frost date, search by state in the tables provided by the National Climatic Data Center.) Cool-season plants will continue to grow a little after nights turn chilly, but they will make most of their new growth early on, while the weather is still warm.

Many of the best crops of fall — including salad greens and various cabbage cousins — will refuse to germinate in soil warmer than 85 degrees, so the seeds are best started indoors (on a 90-degree day, surface soil temperatures may actually be 110 degrees or more). The procedure for growing seedlings is the same as in spring (see Seed Starting Basics), but care for transplanted seedlings requires some extra hardware. Insect pressure in late summer is severe, so use homemade or purchased lightweight row covers to exclude critters. (See The No-Spray Way to Protect Plants) It helps to shade each seedling with a light-colored flowerpot, pail or other cover for two to three days after transplanting. Protected from scorching sun, the seedlings can concentrate on growing reliable roots.

Cabbage and broccoli seedlings need to be planted at least eight weeks before the first fall frost, and as long as their roots are kept moist, they seem to benefit from a spell of hot weather as late summer days become shorter. When set out so late that they miss the last warm spells, cabbage cousins tend to stop growing too soon. Whether you’re working with seedlings you grew yourself or bought at a store, get them in the ground as soon as you can.

If you're a serious garlic fanatic, you will want to try growing your own garlic. It doesn't take up much room, but it can be a little tricky. Check out Plant Now for Great Garlic to learn more about garlic cultivation. And here are your best bets for seed sources:

• Bobba-Mike's Garlic Farm (Orrville, Ohio)
  
• Boundary Garlic Farm (Midway, British Columbia)
  
• Cornerstone Garlic Farm (Reidsville, N.C.): 336-349-5106
  
• Filaree Farm (Okanogan, Wash.)
  
• G & H Garlic Farm (Littleton, N.H.) 
  
• Girardin Gourmet Gardens (Randolph, Minn.): 507-263-5897
  
• Gourmet Garlic Gardens (Bangs, Texas)
  
• Seed Savers Exchange (Decorah, Iowa)
  
• The Garlic Store (Fort Collins, Colo.)

If you are aware of more great sources for garlic gardeners, please use the comments section below to tell us about them.

It's easy to overlook how useful grass clippings can be, but early fall is a great time to collect this valuable 'yard waste' to use in your garden as mulch.

That's because as the weather cools, the grass starts growing faster and needs more frequent mowing. Sure, you could bag all these clippings and set them out to be hauled away with your trash. But why let them go to waste? A much better use is to put them in your garden as mulch. And don't stop with grass clippings — shredded leaves make great mulch, too.

Not only does this all-natural mulch help suppress weeds and retain moisture, but as it slowly breaks down it will naturally enrich your garden soil. Mulch is so valuable for your garden that you might even consider collecting unwanted yard waste from friends and neighbors — anything beyond your immediate needs can go into the compost pile. (Just be sure not to use grass clippings from chemically treated lawns. You don't want to introduce herbicide residue into your garden because it's harmful to your plants.)

For more about how and why to start using grass clippings in your garden and yard instead of throwing them away, check out this helpful information on recycling grass clippings from the Virginia Cooperative Extension. Or for more tips on composting your yard waste, check out the Mother Earth News article, Composting Made Easy.

Garlic — delicious, hardy, and packed with health benefits — is a low maintenance and cold-hardy crop that actually grows best if planted in the fall. Follow these tips to help you get started.

Garlic grows best when its foliage has plenty of time to develop. The more leaves on the plant, the bigger and tastier the bulb. By planting the cloves in the fall, the plants can establish roots and get a head start. Leaves then grow in the crisp, short days of spring, and the new garlic bulbs develop as days lengthen and temperatures climb. For this reason, (and because gardening in October is usually preferable to being outdoors in February), it is best to plant your garlic now.

Can't I just buy garlic?

Garlic is not just the standard variety available at the grocery store. In fact, there are hundreds of unique varieties. They vary in flavor (from pungent and spicy to mild and sweet), appearance (from purple to silver), and climate preferences.

There are two main types of garlic — soft-neck and hard-neck. In general, soft-neck garlic is best suited for warmer climates, and hard-neck garlic can bear and indeed prefers a colder winter season. To reduce the risk of disease, it is best to start your garlic from a reputable seed supplier rather than store-bought cloves. Though you may initially invest around $15 a pound for garlic from a seed supplier, it is a one-time investment and will yield more varied and plentiful results than simply using grocery-store garlic.

Best of all possible soils

Garlic does best in soil that is enriched with organic matter. Plant bulbs 3 to 4 inches deep and in rows 5 or 6 inches apart. Plant them sometime before the first hard frost in your area, so that roots have time to develop. You can then cover the bed with either straw or shredded leaves to protect the garlic from winter cold, and sit back and relax until next summer, when your bulbs are ready for harvest and — the best part — consumption.

For more information and a list of mail order garlic suppliers, see our article Plant Now for Great Garlic.